Abstract
By comparing femtosecond laser pulse induced ferro- and antiferromagnetic dynamics in one and the same material—metallic dysprosium—we show both to behave fundamentally different. Antiferromagnetic order is considerably faster and much more efficiently reduced by optical excitation than its ferromagnetic counterpart. We assign the fast and extremely efficient process in the antiferromagnet to an interatomic transfer of angular momentum within the spin system. Our findings imply that this angular momentum transfer channel is effective in other magnetic metals with nonparallel spin alignment. They also point out a possible route towards energy-efficient spin manipulation for magnetic devices.
- Received 15 March 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.197202
© 2017 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Focus
Quick Changes in Magnetic Materials
Published 6 November 2017
A class of magnetic materials can be reordered at the nanoscale more rapidly than the type usually found in magnetic hard drives, offering a possible route to faster memory devices.
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